Tag - government

 
 

GOVERNMENT

EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2013
Misguided focus on test results
Reversing its traditional position, the education ministry has decided to let municipal boards of education publicize the results for individual schools in the achievement tests taken by sixth and ninth graders nationwide. An even worse obsession with test scores could follow.
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2013
A fair division of tax revenues
The central government should try to work out a permanent system of distributing prefectural corporate taxes to local governments that will help stabilize local revenue and decentralize administrations.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2013
The revival of a Great Depression-era retread
Paul Krugman and other economists now advocate the kinds of things Keynesians typically promote to stabilize the economy during a recession to become a permanent part of the U.S. fiscal architecture.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2013
Pension investment fund must ditch JGBs: Ito
The world's biggest retirement fund needs to cut bond holdings now because the Japanese government will follow an advisory panel's recommendation that the wealth manager seek higher returns, the panel's head said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2013
The politics of secrets
Flip-flops in government explanations of the contentious bill for protecting state secrets — now under deliberation in the Upper House — suggest that the government itself does not have a clear idea of how it plans to prevent the arbitrary designation of information as a special secret.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2013
A shift in rice production policy
It will take much more than an end to the rice paddy area reduction policy coupled with subsidies to turn Japanese agriculture into a growth sector as envisioned by the Abe administration.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2013
Washington isn't working, so why not move it?
Dispersing the headquarters of Washington's bureaucratic agencies throughout America's hinterland might well reduce people's feelings of alienation and hence lead to better government.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013
In Iraq, nothing gets built and civil war looms
Back in Iraq, nothing gets built or repaired, unemployment is 30 percent, and the Shiites and Sunnis are again lurching toward civil war.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2013
Metro government to extend hours of arts, sports facilities
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will move up or extend business hours at its arts and sports facilities this fall and winter to accommodate more diverse lifestyles.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 6, 2013
World's biggest pension fund readies powder for new Japan growth stock index
Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund plans to boost investment in growth stocks to increase returns and may eventually allocate several trillion yen to such equities, the Nikkei newspaper said.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2013
Housing help for evacuees
The central and local governments must be ready to help both evacuees who want to return home and those who want to settle in new places.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2013
Tohoku-Tokyo 1,000-km relay ends
A 1,040-km relay involving more than 700 runners and bicyclists ended Wednesday in Tokyo after the participants passed through areas in the Tohoku region devastated by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2013
West must deal with Egypt's de facto leadership
Events in Egypt are the latest example of the interplay worldwide among democracy, protest and government efficacy. Western disengagement is not an option.
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2013
Alternative ideas need a voice
Merely opposing Shinzo Abe's policies and goals before the Upper House polls is not enough. The opposition needs to clarify an alternative vision for Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2013
Tokyo panel mulls ways to enhance high school English education
A panel of experts kicked off discussions Thursday on measures to enhance English education at Tokyo's public high schools, aiming to enable students to acquire practical communications skills and become more global-oriented.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami